Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe

Yesterday was the fiesta of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The primary celebration is held at the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of the faithful made pilgrimages to celebrate her day.

The Virgin appears to Juan Diego

In an earlier post, I wrote about the Virgin of Guadalupe and the historical context of her appearance to the Nahuatl peasant, Juan Diego, canonized in the twentieth century as the first American saint.

Even if you don't speak Spanish, this CNN piece nonetheless conveys the sights and sounds that greeted the faithful arriving at the Basílica.

Large crowds are no longer in my repertoire, so we looked for ways closer to home to honor her day. When I observed to our taxi driver that today is the fiesta of the Virgin of Guadalupe, he brightened visibly at my words before proudly replying, "Yes, today is the day we celebrate being Mexicans."

Yet again, I was struck by the power of having something I've read come to life right in front of me. The taxi driver gave voice to a deep truth of Mexican culture: the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe has served to unite all the peoples of Mexico like no other event in Mexican history. We heard similar comments in Michoacán, but hearing it for the first time here in the highly urbanized environment that is Mexico City was somehow different—a different facet of a complex cultural reality.

Celebrations of the Independence from Spain and the Revolution are political in nature, but the Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe is something else entirely. Deeply grounded in ethnicity, it symbolizes this Mother's love for all the people, el pueblo, who inhabit Mexican soil.

The Lady's Words

Here is an English translation of a segment of the words traditionally ascribed to the Lady [emphasis added]:

"Know and understand well, you, the most humble of my sons, that I am the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God for whom we live, of the Creator of all things, Lord of heaven and the earth. I wish that a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my love, compassion, help, and protection, because I am your merciful mother, to you, and to all the inhabitants on this land and all the rest who love me, invoke and confide in me; listen there to their lamentations, and remedy all their miseries, afflictions and sorrows." [emphasis added]

Initial Impact

At the time, the story of the brown-skinned Lady who spoke in Nahuatl to a common peasant spread quickly through the indigenous communities. The effect was to reassure the original peoples who continued to suffer through the effects of their defeat. Their reassurance derived in large measure from where the Lady appeared: that is, on the Hill of Tepeyac, site of a temple to Tonantzin that was destroyed by Cortés.

Tonantzín was a manifestation of Coatlicue, the earth goddess who both gave and determined the length of life. Juan Diego's vision of the Lady is credited with being a major factor in the conversion of many indigenous to the Catholic faith; in fact, many called her Tonantzin until the Church gave her one name, Guadalupe.

Mestizos—offspring of  Spanish and indigenous unions—embraced the Virgin of Guadalupe as their source of dignity and respect in a colonial environment that gave them neither.

Impact Over Time

Over time, the criollos—Spanish born on Mexican soil, rather than in Spain—came to embrace the Virgin. Although criollos had economic rights, they were denied political power by the Spanish king, they were hence unable to hold any public office. With their embrace of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the criollos reasoned that the Virgin Mary's appearance on the soil of Nueva España legitimized their birthplace and hence their claim to political power.

In 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo led a peasant rebellion against Spain carrying the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Though crushed, Hidalgo's uprising is credited with being the beginning of Mexico's War for Independence from Spain.

December 12, 2011

This second CNN clip focuses on the reasons people give for coming to the Basílica.

A simple song sung by two women has these words: Guadalupana (the Virgin), era Mexicana (was Mexican) and una hermosa mañana la Guadalupana bajó al Tepeyac (one beautiful morning, the Guadalupana came down the Hill of Tepeyac).

Several pilgrims then speak:

The young woman says she has visited the Virgin of Guadalupe since she was a child; she has afflictions, and the Virgin has helped her. 

The woman praying the rosary is asking for world peace, that people's needs be met, and that those confronting storms in their lives receive the Virgin of Guadalupe's intercession. 

The young man says he is there to demonstrate his faith for going forward in his life.

One of the singers describes the Virgin de Guadalupe:

"She was brown-skinned (morenita); nearly all of us Mexicans are brown-skinned. We are proud of her because she is humble. She protects all the people; she protects the children."

Little, Brown-skinned Virgin 

This fiesta introduced us to two new names for the Virgin of Guadalupe. Each uses the diminutive form much used by Mexicans.  The first is la Virgencita (the Little Virgin); the other is la Morenita (the little brown-skinned one).

How better to sum up the place that the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of Mexico, occupies in the hearts and souls of Mexicans than with these affectionately familiar names, la Virgencita and la Morenita?